Looking at the distribution of talent, the Baltimore Colts had eight former players represented on the 1950s All-Decade Team. The next closest in terms of players represented are the Rams and the Lions who have five each, who are then followed by the Giants and 49ers with four each. The 1950s NFL All-Decade Team marked the first time a special teams player (Lou Groza of the Browns) was named as a member.

By looking at the make-up of the 1950s All-Decade Team we can see that the college football landscape started to experience parity in the 1940s when most of these players were still in school. Many more of the schools we’ve come to think of as classic football universities are represented on this 1950s All-Decade Team, although there are still a number of non-football schools represented. Morgan State, Tulsa, Pennsylvania, Virginia Military Institute, Scottsbluff, St. Bonaventure, and Colorado State are all represented with former players making this list. Also two community colleges, Compton Community and San Francisco Junior College, are represented for the first time. But the most surprising thing, collegiately speaking, about the make-up of the 1950s NFL All-Decade Team is that the college most represented is the University of San Francisco.

As we stated before, what prompted this look at the NFL’s All-Decade Team was the question as to how many players have made the All-Decade Team, meaning they’ve been a great player for roughly a decade if not more, but failed to make it into the Hall-of-Fame.